Italian job has Wallabies on track

The Wallabies beat Italy 32-6 in their first match of the Rugby World Cup yesterday, punctuating a successful opening weekend to the New Zealand tournament.

In fact the only blemish for organisers was the failure to get the trains to run on time, unacceptably causing many supporters to miss the opening ceremony and the first half of the opening match.

Perhaps Italian expertise would have been more effective fixing the trains than it was in attempting to topple the Wallabies.

This was a good win for the Wallabies as the Italians are an improving rugby nation, but for a country which is cited as housing 60 per cent of the world’s art treasures and manufactures, and many of the world’s top sports cars, Italy must soon be due to produce some of the world’s greatest rugby treasures.

Although, for as long as it also has the lowest birth-rate of all European countries, which is ironic considering its strong Catholic roots, Italy may have to continue to rely on foreigners to augment its roster.

Appearances can be deceiving. Don’t be blindsided by the fact that their starting line-up contains six surnames ending with the letter “i", three with “o", three with “a", and two with “e". In fact, five of them hail from Argentina, two from South Africa and one from Canada.

But at present, brilliant and diverse as their art and culture may be, their rugby, while gutsy, remains staid. There’s a good reason Italy is shaped like a boot, as that’s almost exclusively how they play their rugby – with the boot. They have a conservative and predictable game which is at odds with their persona. They don’t try anything grand and, until they do, neither will they become anything grand.

In fairness, the conditions weren’t ideal for a free-flowing spectacle. After a couple of perfect Auckland days, Huey sent down one more typical for NZ, and it was the Wallabies who adapted best.

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When you wake up to play rugby on wet, cold and windy days like Sunday, you’re not admiring the wonders of nature.

While your mother’s glad you play for the Wallabies and your gear gets laundered, you’re thinking: “No nonsense, let’s just get out there and get the job done." And that’s what the Wallabies did. In the first half they laid the foundation and in the second half they capitalised.

The work was shared and so were the spoils as first Ben Alexander and then Adam Ashley-Cooper, James O’Connor and finally Digby Ioane scored.

O’Connor’s cameo, for the final 20-odd minutes, was enough to suggest he will be in the starting team from here.

His presence is just too compelling to leave out. So now with his penance served, and hopefully with his lesson learnt, the selectors will forgive, even if they do not forget, his transgression and move on.

The best measure for the Wallabies yesterday was never going to be the scoreboard as much as their own self-assessment.

The questions they needed to answer positively were: were we smart enough and were we tough enough, mentally and physically? They were both.

There’s an old saying in golf that you don’t draw a picture on the scorecard, the only thing that matters is the number etched in the square. The scorecards from the first weekend similarly don’t tell the whole story but they give us the basics, and that is that the big guns are through week one intact, albeit in some cases somewhat uncomfortably.

England for one did all they could to lose to Argentina, but not quite enough as they prevailed in the end. This doesn’t detract one bit from England’s threat. Of particular note was their impenetrable defensive line. That, combined with better ball control, will mean their opponents will have to be at their best.

Also notable was the improved performance of the emerging nations. None was thrashed as they may have been at previous world cups. These are positive signs for a maturing international game.